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Jayne
Send email Jayne with any questions, ideas, and your calender of events to Jayne Behman.
Visit JayneBehman.com
A professional artist for over 42 years, Jayne earned her BFA at UCLA and is completing her MFA at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Her artwork is represented by galleries in the United States, including three locations along California's Central Coast.  
A lecturer and educator, she is active in the local art community and writes for various publications.  Her published book, " Art Matters," is a visual art education tool being used in public and private elementary schools throughout the United States as well as by many Children's Art Museums.

2010 Holiday Shopping Guide

When you spend here a portion of your dollars gets recycled into charitable organizations that benefit our local community:

Glass Purse

The ARTery's "Under $200 Art Show"

Functional and Wareable Art as well as all fine arts and crafts.

This event raises money for AIDS SUPPORT NETWORK

Reception event is December 4th 6-8pm (part of the "Atascadero Art and Wine Tour")
20% of proceeds are being donated to AIDs Support Network.

December 1st through January 31st.
Hours:11am – 4pm Thursdays through Saturdays
5890 Traffic Way
Atascadero, CA
Phone: 464-0533
Website: The ARTery

Petersen Plate

2nd Annual Holiday Giftique

Artists donate a portion of proceeds to
The SLO Food Bank Coalition &The Maxine Lewis Homeless Shelter. Glass, Jewelry, Ceramics

December 6th, Sunday from 11am – 5pm
1662 Knoll Rd, San Luis Obipso
Phone: 787-0308

Craft Market 2009

Benefits the SLO Art Center's ongoing needs to provide visual arts to the community.

San Luis Obispo Art Center's annual holiday craft market through December 31st.

1010 Broad Street, San Luis Obispo (805)543-8562

11am – 5pm Daily except for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve until 3pm.

Holiday Gifts That Give Back

by Jayne Behman

Rewarding costume-clad kids with candy (Trick or Treat) hadn't even begun when wreaths and garlands began to be retail displays. More than two weeks before Thanksgiving, streets became illuminated with strings of lights and store windows burst with motorized waving Santas, festive wrappings, and Chanukah menorahs. Few houses begin to twinkle . . a tiny preview of what's to come. For me, pre-Thanksgiving is too premature to consider who's naughty and nice. In addition, early "tis the season" bustle always seems to diminish the true spirit of Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is the remembrance of sharing past, present, and future. This is a non-denominational holiday, the right time for reflection, introspection, and personal growth. It is a "time-out." Enjoy family and friends. Invite new people into your life. Give back to your community. Share a small part of what makes you, you. It takes time to contemplate what makes us thankful.

Having a loving and supportive husband who has put up with my dramatics along with poor cooking skills, who has schlepped my paintings and sculptures for years, he is a blessing laid upon me. We rejoice in the accomplishments of our four sons and the continued good health of our loved ones. Thanksgiving isn't the one time to help those in ill health and remember the ones that have passed.

I am humbled to be able to live in such a beautiful and thriving environment. How fortunate am I each night to hear the clanging ocean bells as they rock with the swaying motion of the water and the barking seals! The smell of the sea and the crashing waves against the rocks sets me free. Thank you Morro Bay Beautiful, the Surfrider's Foundation, the Harbor Patrol, the Coast Guard, The Morro Bay National Estuary Program, and to everyone who promotes the conservation of our unique coastline, and our coastal cities.

I feel so grateful to be living in the United States of America. Our country is unlike all others. Regardless of our country's ongoing financial struggles or individual political agendas, it is here that we enjoy the human rights of freedom of speech and the ability to practice our personal beliefs. We live in a land where water flows, toilets flush, and where the ideal that all men are created equal prevails. Our troops, here and abroad, and those brave soldiers who have died for our nation can never be forgotten. One day out of 365 just doesn't seem quite enough for such an important day.

Feeding the hungry and providing shelter to the homeless have not ended.

The ability to create is a gift from a higher power. I liken my art to gratitude in action. Its outcome, the work, is a legacy, a mirror of things past and present and hope for the future.

Husband
From the film As Seen Through These Eyes - this image is of the painter Karl Stojka,
a Gypsy who avoided execution by running errands for Mengele, went on to paint
more than a thousand canvases depicting his experiences.

The documentary As Seen Through These Eyes suggests that Hitler's failure as an artist was an underlying obsession that he transformed toward the destruction of artists and great works of art. For me, the essence of this film was about the concentration camp artist/prisoners and their art. These paintings and drawings convey a depth of suffering beyond our imagination. Those artists were compelled to create art as a psychic survival tool and as documentation of the people, a time, and the place.

I applaud visual artists whose voices aren't swayed by the need to make a buck. In 2006, New York artist Doug Auld débuted his series of paintings, State of Grace, which were stunning portraits of burn victims. According to a New York Times article, the painter, said "that if people have a chance to gaze without voyeuristic guilt at the disfigured, they may be more likely to accept them as fellow human beings, rather than as grotesques to be gawked at or turned away from."

Local artists Mark Bryan and David Settino Scott demand us to look at life's realities. The Steynberg Gallery, 1531 Monterey Street in San Luis Obispo (805)547-0278, represents both artists.

Mark Bryan's paintings communicate a satirical approach to the world, embedded with hopeful humor. He takes on today's themes of personal struggles, environmental crises, and endless wars. To relate to his work, the audience must be somewhat informed.

David Scott caused uneasiness amongst San Luis Obispo Art Viewers with his stunning luminous paintings depicting beautiful nude women bleeding from small, self-inflicted cuts. Over 2 million Americans practice "Deliberate Self-Harm Syndrome." Labeled "cutters," they, ranging in age from 13 to 30, self inflict this mutilation to reduce stress. Princess Diana was an admitted cutter; there are no social bounds to mental disease.

Artists have something to say, their way. The artistic image has become a powerful tool to convey today's worries. TV offering 24 hrs a day of live feed and reality shows have anesthetized our senses.

It warms my heart to know that artists worldwide contribute to their communities. Many artists and galleries on our Central Coast are donating proceeds from art sales as helping hands. Giving these gifts of Art helps more than the makers. Goods that give back to the community complete a circle of life.

All celebrations are give and take, ying and yang. It is another reminder that we exist within a divine balanced system. Be kind to others and they will be kind to you. No one has it all. Life is not always fair. Shall we choose to look at our cups being half empty or half full? I choose the latter.

To my seasoned friends and to my new mates, have a joyous and dignified holiday season.

Pottery

The Allan Hancock College Ceramics Sales

Proceeds donated to these budding artists: the ceramic department's special fund for visiting artists, workshops, and to support the Alan Hancock Art Gallery.

Friday, December 4, 11 am to 4 pm
Saturday, December 5, 9 am to 4 pm
The pottery is wonderful, the quality fabulous. The work ranges from low and high fire, raku and pit-fired, functional, non-functional and sculptural.

Student Center, Allan Hancock College Student Center, Room G 106 A/B
800 S. College Drive, Santa Maria, CA
For info call 922-6966 ext. 3252 or email Shogan.

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